Not long afore this, was Hezekiah sick unto death: And the Prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz came unto him, and said, "Thus commandeth the LORD, 'Set thine house in order: for thou must die, and shall not escape.

For hell praiseth not thee, death doth not magnify thee. They that go down into the grave, praise not thy truth:

Behold, bitter as gall was my pensiveness: so sore longed I for health. And it was thy pleasure to deliver me from the filthy pit: for thou it is, O Lord, that hath cast all my sins behind thy back.

"I thought I should have gone to the gates of hell in my best age, and have wanted the residue of my years.

Behold, I will return the shadow of Ahaz's dial, that now is laid out with the Sun, and bring it ten degrees backward.'" So the Sun turned ten degrees backward, the which he was desended afore.

but the living, yea the living acknowledge thee, like as I do this day. The father telleth his children of thy faithfulness.

A thanksgiving, which Hezekiah king of Judah wrote, when he had been sick, and was recovered.

"Go and speak unto Hezekiah: The LORD God of David thy father sendeth thee this word, 'I have heard thy prayer, and considered thy tears: behold, I will put fifteen years more unto thy life,

Then chattered I like a swallow, and like a crane, and mourned as a dove. I lift up mine eyes to the height: 'O LORD,' say I, 'violence is done unto me, be thou surety for me.'

And Isaiah said, "Take a plaster of figs, and lay it upon the sore, so shall it be whole."

Deliver us, O LORD, and we will sing praises in thy house, all the days of our life."

And take thee this token of the LORD, that he will do it, as he hath spoken:

and said, "Remember, O LORD, that I have walked before thee in truth and a steadfast heart, and have done the thing that is pleasant to thee." And Hezekiah wept sore.

and deliver thee and the city also, from the hand of the king of Assyria, for I will defend the city.

O LORD, men may live beyond their years, and I will declare to all men that even in those years, it was thou that causedest me to sleep, and again thou hast given me life.

Mine age is folden up together, and taken away from me, like a shepherd's cottage: my life is hewn off, like as a weaver cutteth off his web. While I was yet taking my rest, he hewed me off, and made an end of me in one day.'

Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and prayed unto the LORD,

I spake within myself, 'I shall never visit the LORD God in this life: I shall never see man among the dwellers of the world.

I thought I would have lived unto the morrow, but he bruised my bones like a lion, and made an end of me in one day.

What shall I say? The Lord hath made a promise to me. Yea, and he himself hath performed it. I shall therefore, as long as I live, remember bitterness of my life.

Then said Hezekiah, "O what a great thing is this, that I shall go up in to the house of the LORD."

Then said God unto Isaiah,